A newly appointed US assistant secretary of state said Thursday that President George W. Bush's remarks in recent interviews about Washington's commitment to help defend Taiwan does not represent a change in policy.
James Andrew Kelly, who was approved by the Senate as assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs that day, also said that Bush "specifically did not [during the interviews] support Taiwan independence."
Kelly made the comments during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on his nomination.
He said: "It seems to me that the important and unchanging element here is the US support for peaceful resolution of the cross-strait issue."
"The recent arms sales decision responds to a PRC military buildup that has been rather specifically aimed at Taiwan and at US capabilities," he told the committee members.
He also added that he believes that it is essential that the leadership of the People's Liberation Army do not miscalculate in this situation.
Bush's remarks that the US is obliged to protect Taiwan and are prepared to use "whatever it [takes] to help Taiwan defend itself" have drawn strong criticism from some congressmen and resentment from Beijing.
In Thursday's hearing, Senator Joseph Biden said that the US is not obliged to defend Taiwan "with the full force of the American military."
Biden added that the US "hasn't since we abrogated the 1954 Mutual Defense Treaty signed by President Eisenhower and ratified by the United States of America."
The 1979 Taiwan Relations Act does not commit the US to defend Taiwan in case of attack by China. Rather it says that it would view such action as a matter of grave concern.
Such expressions are, however, commonly used in diplomacy to indicate that certain behavior would be regarded as a cassus belli, a reason for going to war,, between two countries.
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